The Experimentalist Looks Within: Toward an Understanding of Within-Subject Experimental Designs
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The traditional approach in experimental economics is to use a between-subject design: the analyst places each unit in treatment or control simultaneously and recovers treatment effects via differencing conditional expectations. Within-subject designs represent a significant departure from this method, as the same unit is observed in both treatment and control conditions sequentially. While many might consider the choice straightforward (always opt for a between-subject design), given the distinct benefits of within-subject designs, I argue that researchers should meticulously weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each design type. In doing so, I propose a categorization for within-subject designs based on the plausibility of recovering an internally valid estimate. In one instance, which I denote as stealth designs, the analyst should unequivocally choose a within-subject design rather than a between-subject design. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
Source: Review of Behavioral Economics
Author: John A. List
Institution: University of Chicago
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4407312719